Páidí O’Brien won his second race in as many weeks when he scorched to victory in yesterday’s Carrick Wheelers Cup in Carrick on Suir.

Nicolas Roche came agonisingly close to winning his first ever stage of the Tour de France yesterday but was overhauled in the closing metres before the finishing line in Brive-la-Gaillarde by Team Sky’s fast-man Mark Cavendish.